The property market has gone mad! Mad I tell you!

[IlanaK]

We are stiiiiillllll looking for somewhere to buy. There has been nothing new on the market for two months now. A flat came on the market this week - viewings today. We went, as did 19 other couples! We put an offer in and were told they would wait until Monday to get "all offers in". So basically, as soon as anything good comes on the market, we will be competing against loads of other people, everything will go for over the asking price and we will never be able to buy anywhere.

Soooooo fed up of all this!

Golly, sorry you're having what sounds like a very stressful time. Hope you find something soon.

Crikey - where on earth do you live?!

What happened to the place(s?) you put offers in on last year?

We pulled out in the end. Just wasn't right for us.

We have leafleted 100 homes in the area we want to live today in desperation.

Nancydrewrocks - NW6 in London.

So, how many offers do you reckon the place will have by Monday? Out of 19 viewings?

IlanaK - it was like that in NW6 2 and a half years ago when we bought in NW6 too - the house we ended up buying (at a hideously inflated price) went to sealed bids - and from what I hear sealed bids are coming back. A house down the street from us - which needs a total overall, including installing central heating - just sold to a cash buyer for £625k. I think some areas are always desirable and as there isnt much on the market at the moment sellers really can afford to wait to see who is going to pay the most for a place.

The sale on our flat went to sealed bids about last Autumn (not NW6, but not far). I am sure this will go to sealed bids next week. We can't afford it to do that, so we will probably lose out.

Same here in Brighton We bought a house in sep 2008 and it is on the market from monday and has increased hugely and agent says he has masses of interest just waiting for HIp.A flat I like which came on this week had 11 viewings today!

You can have our house if you like, located in an area of outstanding natural beauty in lovely Sussex countryside, and only an hour's commute to the smoke!

lol - thanks for the offer! But we are only looking in the NW6 postcode

dinkystinky - when you said you paid an inflated price, was it over the asking price? That is what I am worried will happen with this one and we can't afford that.

Tell me about it. We sold our house right at the bottom of the dip in April last year and have been renting ever sine.

We thought we'd be in a great position but so far, on the only 2 houses in 9 months we have liked, we were gazumped on one and lost a sealed bid on the other. There aren't many buyers around but they are all in the same position as us.

If we'd have hung on selling an extra 6 months we'd be about £70k up I reckon. Sadly our hand was forced by DS2's arrival.

I'm losing the will to live!

But I'm convinced it can't last. It's built on nothing more than a lag between an increase in demand and supply. Once the balance restores and more people hear these stories and put their house on the market it will all change.

That's what I convince myself anyway.

"losing the will to live" That is exactly how I feel! We too are in an excellent position to buy and can't believe we are resorting to sticking leaflets through people's doors begging them to sell to us!

We are living with family, not renting, so can't go on like this forever.

I hope you're right, fruitstick. I'm in the same position and the rent is costing a bloody fortune ... I got gazumped in November.

No-one wants my house we have only had ONE measly viewing. The house we wanted had around 45 viewings in 3 weeks and eventually was sold to someone who made a lower offer than us because we were taking so long to sell

Our estate agent is not doing a very good job...our house isn't that bad.

It's interesting as two flats we viewed in an excellent location last year gave up and took them off the market. Stuff seems to either sell immediately, or not at all around here.

IlanaK - yes, paid over the asking price (fortunately had a big deposit from selling our flat at inflated price) as all offers in were over the asking price and the sellers asked for "last and final offers" in sealed bid situations. If I were you I'd expand your search area out further - if you're looking at NW6 in west hampstead only, spread out to Kilburn and Queens Park and consider NW10 over in Kensal Rise. We ended up buying over in Queens Park which wasnt an area we'd originally considered but we really like it round here - and transport links are pretty good on the whole and the local primary school round the corner is pretty good.

Our area for looking includes Queens Park, Kilburn, West Hampstead, South Hampstead. Not Kensal Green or Kensal Rise though.

Dh and the kids are off to put another 100 leaflets through doors today.

Good luck - FWIW I've noticed lots more for sale signs going up around Queens Park so hopefully the market will soon start to loosen up abit - but I suspect family houses and large flats will still be under a fair bit of demand.

Well, if you get a leaflet through your door today asking you to sell your home, you will know its us as Dh and the kids are heading your way!

Look forward to receiving the leaflet. Out of interest, how many bedrooms are you looking for? We spent months looking - and getting outbid on places - when we were looking for our house but managed to find one in the end, so hold on in there. FWIW, we found that some estate agents were better than others for letting us know when things were about to come on the market - Queens Park Partnership on Salusbury Road were pretty good as was the other one just next door to it (name escapes me at the moment). Westminster Property Services werent so good at letting us know but did seem to get lots of places on their books. Its worth getting to know them and keep calling them (as we did) as they'll let you know when they've looked at properties for valuations in the areas you want and if there is anything coming on to their books. The estate agents in West Hampstead on the other hand were all uniformly crap - so used to the postcode selling itself they barely even bothered to do their job...

3 bedrooms and a garden. We are registered with all of the agents in the area and I do call them regularly.

We are going to leaflet one more set of streets next weekend (so we will have done about 300-400 by then). You would think we might get one response from that!

Wishing you the very best of luck with your search. If you still dont have any luck it may be worth thinking about expanding the search out to Brondesbury, Kensal Rise and Kensal Green as have friends who live over in those areas and they've certainly got much more space for their money.

but everyone knows that the property market dies between nov and feb, surely? so if you have a great place there's some sense in selling as having one great place on an otherwise empty mktplace creates a little bubble. but to do that, you need to be able to walk away if you're not getting the offer you want.
most people with average places selling in nov and dec are desperate to get the deal sealed before christmas, and are moving to get a job somewhere else or because they've bought etc etc. it's a good time to buy but there isn't much on the market.

things will start moving now, for sure. spring's when houses start to photograph well, and people think of bigger gardens etc.

The market isn't doing what it usually does though The period before xmas was the busiest of 2009.House prices are being kept up artificially with QE and low interest rates so now is the ideal time to sell.Mortgages available and plenty of money around.Once rates rise the market will be flooded and prices will fall again